Joanne McEachen

Joanne McEachen is founder and CEO of The Learner First (thelearnerfirst.com), an international education consultancy based in Seattle, Washington. She leads a team of dedicated education and evaluation specialists who suport school systems through the processes of assessment, measurement, and whole-system change. Her methodology interrogates systems through the eyes of their least-served learners, supporting them to embrace and celebrate students’ cultural identities and individual interests and needs. Joanne also serves as the Global New Measures Director for New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL), an international partnership focused on measuring and developing six global competencies of deep learning (the “6Cs”), where she works alongside and in partnership with Michael Fullan, Joanne Quinn, and other educators and system leaders worldwide. With her NPDL cofounders, Joanne coauthored Deep Learning: Engage the World, Change the World, which shares and celebrates the learning emerging from throughout NPDL.

Joanne’s expertise spans every level of the educational system. She has been a teacher, principal, superintendent, and national-school-system leader in her home country of New Zealand and around the world, and she has worked with multiple large and diverse school districts in the US to bring deeper learning to life. Drawing from rich and varied experiences tackling the issues faced by schools, districts, education departments, and the individuals within them, Joanne shares measures, tools, approaches, and insights that deepen learning for every learner.